Flash memory cells have been developed. They typically have a floating gate whose electrical charge can be programmed to represent a digital one or zero, by the action of a tunneling current through a thin gate oxide. The typical substrate is silicon, which can tolerate high temperature processing for creation of the gate oxide. The flash memory cells are unsuitable for directly implementing a charge image comprising an array larger than 100×100 cells, because transfer gates and bit-line contacts would interrupt the otherwise regular array of memory cells.
Methods have been developed for atomic and molecular layer deposition. These methods enable precise synthesis of new materials, and the new materials can lead to new products and applications of great potential value. However, the products produced by molecular layer deposition generally have a small size, viewable through an electron microscope for example, and this limits their commercial application.
Despite the progress made in memory cell fabrication, there is a need in the art for uninterrupted charge storage arrays that can be fabricated at low temperatures, manufacturable on flexible polymer substrates or metal foil substrates for example. There is a further need in the art for manufacturing systems that can implement processes related to molecular layer deposition, wherein the new processes provide a large area format that can be fabricated at high speed.